Tu was für Dich - kleine Erinnerung / Do something for yourself - a little reminder

Im Alltag vergesse ich oft, mich selbst auch zu beachten. 

Daher gibt´s ab sofort eine persönliche To Do Liste - nur für mich. Und gern auch für euch. Zum Speichern. Zum Ausdrucken. Und zum eigene Prioritäten setzen...

I often forget to take enough care of myself. Now I made up  a personal To Do list - just for myself. And for you. To save it. To print it. And to set your own priorities...

Papierkram / Paperwork

Heute blieb die Näma kalt, die Häkelnadeln in der Schublade und die Zangen im Werkzeugkoffer, denn heut habe ich angefangen, meinen Papierkram zu erledigen (und, ach ja: das war teil der immer noch laufenden Marktvorbereitungen)

Today I did not sew, crochet or crimp anything, today I started dealing with my paperwork (and yes, this was part of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming fair)

21 Day Challenge via A bowl full of lemons

♥ check box to read this in ENGLISH

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Heute war Tag 1 meiner selbst auferlegten Challenge mit meinem Haushalt. Nachdem ich in den letzten Wochen angefangen hatte Stück für Stück zu meiner alte Routine zurück zu finden, fehlten mir noch einige Anreitze, wie ich Haus, den angestrebten Traumjob und Mini-me besser organisiert bekomme. Ein ganz wesentlicher Aspekt der Idee, die aus diesem Wunsch entstand, war, für das Leidigste, also den Haushalt, die wenigste Zet zu benötigen und dennoch ein 1A Ergebnis zu haben.

Gewinnspiel/ Sweepstake

Hier das Bild unseres Facebook Gewinnspiels nochmal zum besser lesen können + noch detailiertere Hinweise :)
Find a better &bigger version of our facebook´s sweepstake picture above plus some more better hints.

Viel Glück!
Good luck

Eulen-Spardosen/ Owl Banks Work in Progress Pt.2

Eintrag in Deutsch lesen (pls refresh your browser after switching back to English)

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That´s how far I got today: both birdies are almost ready. The last step remaining is varnishing the banks tomorrow, when the color has dried completely.

I`m just not sure by now, which one I should keep for the baby and which one will be for sale? We´ll see ;).


♥ love ♥ Mone

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Soweit bin ich heute gekommen: Beide Vögelchen sind fast fertig. Morgen müssen sie eigentlich nur noch lackiert werden sobald die Farbe vollständig getrocknet ist.
Ich konnte mich bisher nur noch nicht entscheiden, welchen der beiden ich für das Baby behalten will und welchen ich verkaufen werde? Naja, wir werden sehen ;)


♥ love ♥ Mone

Work in Progress: Eulen-Spardosen/ Owl banks

Eintrag in Deutsch lesen (pls refresh your browser after switching back to English)

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The Idea: Take the piggy-bank and make some other animals. Since owls seems to be everywhere this fall, I decided to try them first.
It´s the almost same as making the blank for the piggy bank. Just fitting the owls ears, beak and feet needed a little time and reconsideration. I finally went for some cardboard, which, cut in triangles for ear and feet and a sqare for the beak. I also put way more layers on the owls as I have done with the piggies, because I recalled, that painting them was difficult back then, because they had been a little soft. First layer of color is on them by now; that´s how they look like at the moment:
I will paint the 2nd layer tonight, that should finish the basic painting. The more detailed work will take place during the weekend.

♥ love ♥ Mone

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Die Idee: Man nehme das Sparschweinchen und bastle einfach andere Tiere nach dieser Anleitung. Da in diesem Herbst überall Eulen rumzuschwirren scheinen, dachte ich mir, ich versuch´s als Erstes mal mit ihnen.
Das Herstellen der Rohlinge funktioniert fast genauso wie beim Sparschwein. Lediglich das Anpassen der Eulenohren, Schnäbel und Krallen benötigte etwas Zeit und musste überdacht werden. Schließlich habe ich für Ohren und Krallen Dreiecke aus Karton zugeschnitten, den Schnabel bildet nun ein Drachenförmiges Viereck. Ich habe außerdem wesentlich mehr Schichten Papier auf die Rohlinge geklebt, als bei den Schweinchen, denn ich meine mich zu erinnern, dass, weil sie recht weich waren, das Anmalen der Schweinchen damals etwas umständlich war.
Mittlerweile ist die erste Farbschicht auf den Eulen und trocknet; so sehen die beiden im Augenblick aus:

Heute abend kommt noch der zweite Anstrich und am Wochenende folgen die Feinarbeiten.

♥ love ♥ Mone

As Days go by - Die Tage vergehen

Eintrag in Deutsch lesen (pls refresh your browser after switching back to English)

...and I did not sew, glue, cut ot even prep something new during the last days. The last things I managed to get ready were 2 t-shirts on which I ironed a printed out Hypocrisy logo. Both were worn by my tomato and meduring the mentoned concert on sunday.

The stack of curtains I promised my sis in law to seam last week, is half way finished, my desk is a mess and I so look against the half finished plaid in its bag below the desk. But I promised myself to keep up my work asap. First of all I need to re-organize myself, I used to do great with making to do lists. It´s just like on Gilmore Gilrs, gosh!

Ok, at the moment my head is stuffed with thousands of other plans and tasks.
First of all, the deadline to pass the final driver licence test end in a few weeks, so I need to get it done and pass it. I will need to be allowed to drive a car (at least I think, I´m able to in general allready), because of some other(not official by now) plans, which will take place in the next couple of months. No failure possible and allowed - basta!

2ndly a dear coleague of mine has started her own scrapbooking project and wants to earn some money with it besides her day job in our office. She asked me a few things and since I´m not the authority in scrapbooking but know a little about where to get things like a blog, free space for picture storage and so on, I gave her some links and addresses and look forward to add and feature her here in a few weeks.

Meanwhile I received some links for more onlineshops, which will receive an order next month. Since I dicovered brads and eyelets used for scrapboking would do great on the enveloppes petit and grande (thanx to Kio ;) ) and I also can imagine some other projects involving them, I´m on fire as usual when I have an idea. And as usual too, I cannot wait, I want to get the new supplies imediately and start. But not this time, I will keep my books clean and keep being in the black. It´s not my fulltime job, its a hobby, and so I try very hard to restsit spending too much money on it.
Still I want to get the shop ready and running (but, surprise, I need to order supplies for making more stuff... what a doom loop.
So we´ll see what will be on my list for tomorrow :).



...und ich habe in den letzten Tagen nichts genäht, geklebt oder auch nur vorbereitet. Das Letzte, das ich geschafft habe, waren zwei T-Shirts, auf die ich ausgedruckte Hypocrisy Logos gebügelt habe. Diese beiden wurden von meinem Tomätchen und mir beim bereits erwähnten Konzert am Sonntag getragen.

Der stapel Vorhänge, die ich letzte Woche meiner Schwägerin umzunähen versprochen hatte, ist halb fertig, mein Tisch ist unglaublich unaufgeräumt und ich sehe momentan sogar gegen das halbfertig Plaid an, das in seinem Beutel unterm Tisch stehnt. Aber ich habe mir vorgenommen, all diese Aufgaben schnellstmöglich wieder aufzunehmen und zu beenden. Als erstes sollte ich mich besser organisieren, ich kam immer gut mit to do Listen klar. Es war fast schon wie bei den Gilmore Girls, oh je!

OK, im Augenblick hab ich den Kopf allerdings auch mit jeder Menge anderen Dingen voll. Als erstes läuft in wenigen Wochen meine Frist für die Führerscheinprüfung ab, ich muss das also schnell hinter mich bringen. In den nächsten Monaten werde ich einfach auf ein Auto angewiesen sein, daher kann und darf ich nicht durchfallen - Basta! (wobei ich denke, dass ich das schon recht gut kann, die Routine ist das große Thema)

Zweitens hat eine liebe Kollegin sich entschlossen, Ihr Hobby Scrapbooking zu einem Projekt zu machen und neben ihrem Hauptjob bei uns im Büro etwas Geld damit dazu zu verdienen. Sie hat mich nach einigen Dingen gefragt und auch wenn ich von Scrapbooking kaum Ahnung habe, so konnte ich ihr doch mit allgemeineren Infos hefen, z.B. wo man ein Blog und kostenlosen Speicherplatz für Fotos bekommt. Ich habe ihr ein paar Adressen und Links gegeben und hoffe, dass ich sie in ein paar Wochen hier verlinken und vorstellen kann.

In der Zwischenzeit habe ich auch einige Links für Online Shops erhalten, in denen ich im nächsten Monat auf jeden Fall bestellen werde. Seit ich herausgefunden habe, dass Brads und Eyelets, die normalerweise für Scrapbooking genutzt werden, hervorragend auf die enveloppes peitit und grande passen würden (danke Kio :) ) , bin ich Feuer und Flamme für die kleinen Dinger! Ich kann mir noch weitere Projekte damit vorstellen. Aber es ist wie immer: ich habe diese Idee, will die notigen Teile SOFORT haben und loslegen. Aber nicht dieses Mal, ich will keine Miesen machen und denke, ich fahre am besten, wenn ich immer bedenke, dass das alles erst einmal nur ein Hobby ist und ich nicht zu viel Geld dafür ausgeben sollte. (Wacken ist schließlich auch ein teures Hobby) Auf der anderen Seite möchte ich meinen Shop zum Laufen bringen und - Überraschung- dafür brauch ich noch einiges Zubehör... ein Teufelskreis ;)

Naja, wir werden sehen, was morgen auf der to do Liste steht...

Haunted by a piggy bank and weekend plans

Of course it´s nothing special, you might think, but I´m a little proud to be honest, because my little piggy bank how to was kind of featured on Cut out+keep´s "Pick of the week":

How could anybody blame me, since I never had been honoured like this before :).

Tomorrow we will celebrate the 85th birthday of hubbys grand-aunt. So I´m busy with washing, drying and ironing the better pieces of my clothing. Meanwhile I plan my weekend activities and came up with the following plan:
1st: the polar fleece plaid for the master bedroom really needs to be finished, since hubby loves to leave the window open, even this time of the year.
2nd: It´s a shame and I really should be embarressed, but since 3 weeks or more my wallet, which I bought last august at a Dunnes store in Shannon/Ireland, is shreded and cannot be closed completely anymore. I should have sewed a new one for me long ago, but, I guess, most of you know, plans like this so often don´t work out. So again I put it on my to do list for this weekend.

The ordered wallet and pasta oil have to be delivered during the first week of December, so I have enough time left for this. The pattern is ready, I only wait for the auctioned leather to arrive here.

Let´s see, how far I´ll get with my plans...

Cheers
Mone

How to - the papier-mâché piggy bank in 10 steps

Ok Folks, I promised and here we go: in this post I´ll show you how to make a papier-mâché piggy bank. Some of you might recall this from your childhood days, so, if you have improvements or better ways to do it, don´t hesitate! I wanna know!

About piggy banks:
Piggy banks or coin banks are quiet common here in Germany, I got my first one aged 4 to save money aunts and my Granny´s rummy friends sliped me from time to time, and when I became 6 we bought a new bicycle from this money (I´m quiet sure, Granny added the most, but it was the concept of learning how to save for something you cannot affort right away.) Nowerdays I had one, where I put all the change in and saved for my new Necchi.

So much for the idea of having a piggy bank, if you did not know these ones before.

Lets get started. First of all, of course, the list of things you´ll need for this project:

what youl´l need:

- ballons/aerostats (best take simple, round ones, at least 2, more depending on how many piggies you want to make)
- lots of old, shred news paper,
- wallpaper paste
- water
- egg carton
- loo paper roll (the carton roll from the inside)
- tape
- 2 sided carpet tape
- craft glue
- acrylic paint or opaque water colours
- 1 bigger paintbrush for the wallpaperpaste, some other paintbrushes for the colours
- clean flowerpots as stands
- craft knife
- scissors
- clear varnish spray


Ok, now you have collected everything you´ll need.

How To

1. read the instructions of the wallpaper paste carefully and prepare a small amount of it as per instructions. You won´t need more than 1/2 cup at once.

2. blow up at least 2 ballons to the size your piggy should have at the end (1 ballon is a backup, if the first one bursts somehow ;) )

3. brush the paste on one half of one balloon and stick newspaper snippets on the gluey parts. brush more paste over the glued snippets and put the balloon onto the flowerpot to let the paste and paper dry. Go on with the back up balloon.

4. if you don´t mind to get sticky fingers, go on with sticking snippets to the other half of each balloon.



5. let dry for at least 30 minutes, if the paper is dry again on most parts, repeat steps 2&4. Go on and put layer over layer, untill you have a good feeling about the thickness of the papier-mâché. I made 7 layers, because I wanted to make sure it won´t rip later.

This is the time consuming part of this project, of course, you can speed it up by gluing several layers at once, but then the paper can rip during the drying process. Again, I wanted to play safe here (at least it should be a birthday present and I had a timeline to meet ;) If you want to do this with your kids, maybe it´s worth to take the (honestly not that big) risk, just to keep the little ones interested and active in this.

5. after you have enough layers and a dry papier-mâché balloon, cut out 4 feet out of an egg carton. trim them to make sure, the piggy later won´t have any unballancing issues. Then decide, how long its nozzle should be and cut it from the loo paper roll. Using the craft glue stick the feet and the nozzle to the ballon, let dry and, if necessary, use the tape for more firmness.




6. to adjust the feet and nozzle prepare another small amount of wallpaper paste and newspaper snippets. stick them as described in step 2 - 4 on feet and nozzle until the edges are soft.
Using more snippets mold the nozzle more detailed and also mold the ears. To mold one ear I started with 2 sqare shaped snippets, which I glued together to the half, so that I got a triangle. This triangle I sticked to piggy´s head and tighten it with mor glued-on snippets. due to the still wet paste it is possible to mold the ear very good. Repeat the steps for the 2nd ear. If you are happy with piggy´s shape, let the little one dry completely.

7. paint the piggy as you like and let dry completely.



8. varnish the piggy with 2 or 3 layers of clear varnish spray, again let dry completely. Use varnish spray very carefully and not near children and pets, the best is to use it outside, at least keep the windows wide open!

9. using a craft knife carefully cut a slot for coins (and notes ;) ) into piggy´s neck. If you don´t want to make a noise with a bursting ballon, just stich into piggy with a pin and wait a while, the air will pass off qietly and after this cut out the slot.
The empty balloon will stay inside piggy´s belly anyway, but that´s ok.

10. the pigtail you can make out of paper, pipecleaners or a wire glued to thick fabric like I did and glue it on piggy´s bottom.


Idea: you could prepare some piggies for your kids and let them do only the painting.

Decorate you piggy bank as you like.

*Done*

This was the piggy bank how to. I really woul love to see your piggies, so if you consider making one, don´t hesitate to send me a picture of the result. I´ll publish them here, if you allow me to.

Thanks for you attention :)

Mone

Followup: Recent work & random tales

I just reviewed the pictures I have taken over the last few weeks and saw, that 2 projects weren´t mentioned here so far.
But the most obvious thing I learned by sorting, reviewing and deleting unneded stuff, was, that since I work for Kodak´s digital support I have taken bazillions of pictures. Of course, because I work as a technical advisor for the support staff, I need to know the products around quiet well and if I´m honest, there is no better way to find out about digital photography and what functions you prefer. I can use all of the cams and learn, run tests and finally found out, which one I love most. I don´t need a reflex camera for my purposes, I think, for my needs the Z915 or Z950 are the chosen ones, while I guess, I´ll go for the first one. I defenitely love working in this job! :)

But back to OUR business ;) 2 months ago, my lovely mom in law had have her birthday. She dreams of having a special bed by IKEA, and since we cannot affort to buy it I decided to make a piggy bank as a gift at least. It´s dreaming of the one bed and wants to be feeded with money untill we can go back to this funiture store from heaven and buy it :)



It´s made of an air balloon and papermâché, the feet are made of egg-cartons, it´s painted and finally sprayed with clear varnish. The bedcap I sewed and taped it with 2sided carpet tape over one of the freehand modeled paper ears. An How To I will publish asap, it´s a funny thing, we made these in school when I was little and I remembered making these piggies was fun.

Now 2 pieces of random stuff...

1st: Finally A picture of me, which I actually like :):
It was taken at my bff´s birthday party (she is the left one). This was one of the first pictures after having the tonsils removed, not beeing able to eat afterwards for 2 weeks and then starting with WW, because I did not want to gain the allready lost pounds again. It´s pretty amazing, how obvious the lost of 26 pounds did change the face as well ;). So, I´m quiet happy about the result and (forgive me) a little bit proud of myself too. The aim is to loose another 12 pounds, just to reach a good BMI, and then I´m fine with it again :).

2nd: Lets do a little time-warp...
When I was 3 years old, one day my dad took me on a trip to the town (we lived in a small village back then). We went for shopping and so on. In front of a toy shop window I suddenly stucked and did not want to leave, because I had seen something, I wanted to have desperately. It was a little blue bunny with white trousers and a face made of rubber. These toys were some sort of modern back then in the GDR. After I had started to cry and acted up terribly for a while, my poor daddy saw no other choice than to buy the damned thing. I still remeber me schleping it the whole way home from the bus stop, holding it by it´s lugs. It was my best friend over many years. But years later I moved and somehow lost it. I searched all over, and finally... ok, it´s not HIM, my "Blauer" (this was his name, which means "blue one") had eyebrows I had painted with a ball pen, when I had have a flue aged 5; but I got his twinbrother at ebay:

Isn´t he adorable? Just think of how old he must be, they were produced back in the 70´s and 80´s. This one, I never, ever want to loose again, because, besides I still have some photos, it´s the only item I have to remind me of my childhood.

Ok, enough childhood memories, another crafty thing I sewed last month was this:


A tiny belt pouch. It´s that small, because only my cell phone and a locker key need to find place in there. I wanted to have one for the gym, since most of my sporty pants don´t have pockets. I need some music while running and lifting some weights and use the phone for this. It´s working well with the pouch, the inner lining is made of polar fleece, so the display of my nokia gets an extra polish each time:



Again, this was a complete "free style" pattern. I only decided, which fabric I wanted to use and the shape the pouch should have. The rest was fitted to the cell phone and to the last zipper I had on stock ;).

Ok, thats it for now, just let me check the pictures for the piggy bank how to and I´ll come back with that!

wishing you a wonderfull night,
Mone